


House Call

by ranthejewels



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Domestic, F/F, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, We Got the Hell Out of Dodge, can you tell I don't know shit about wine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 19:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12196167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ranthejewels/pseuds/ranthejewels
Summary: Alana and Margot have fled with their son now that Hannibal is on the loose. This is about their life somewhere else.





	House Call

**Author's Note:**

> This is an excerpt from my 2015 NaNoWriMo project where I wrote the entire series from Alana's perspective and gave them a more conclusive ending. This is that ending. Spoilers for the whole show, obviously.

Only Alana, Margot, and the pilot knew that they were heading to Napa, and only Alana knew the exact address of the house. While they were sure Hannibal couldn’t possibly have the resources to track them down yet, as he’d only escaped around 48 hours ago, Alana couldn’t take any chances. Let he who holds the devil hold him well, the saying went, and Alana failed to hold him. She’d stood at the gates of Hell for the past three years personally, because she couldn’t dare imagine letting anyone else stand in that same position. She knew Hannibal well enough to know his methods and habits, and she had never let her control slip until Jack Crawford and goddamn Will Graham had come crawling back to him in need of his help. Now everyone was in danger again, and now Margot and Hugo were having to uproot their lives because she hadn’t held him back.  
As they got up in their air, Hugo chattering excitedly with the noise-blocking headphones dwarfing his whole head, Alana took one last look at the grounds of Muskrat Farm and the Verger Estate. She looked at her wife again, and saw that she was also looking at the estate as they flew. Margot’s voice was suddenly in her ear. “I never thought I would leave. I’ve been there my whole life. I was born in the last room on the top floor, the blue one that has those thick yellow curtains. I remember tumbling down the stairs to the barn and scrapping my knee. I remember Mason, when he got old enough, terrorizing me by locking me in one of the closets or shutting me up in the basement for at least an hour. I’ve never lived anywhere else.”  
Alana put her hand on her wife’s arm, and gave her a smile when she looked up and met her eyes. She wanted to say something, but Margot pressed on. “I never thought I would leave, but here I am.”  
“Maybe we’ll come back one day.”  
Margot shook her head. “I hope we never do. Though we tried to fix it, that house has too many ghosts. I’ll miss the trails, and the horses, but I won't miss the house. You and Hugo are my home.”  
Alana leaned in and kissed her, Hugo laughing in between them as he swung his legs on the seat.  
“Hannibal promised he’d get me out, that he’d kill Mason and let me escape. But he didn’t do that. You and I did. We’re free.”  
Alana wished she could agree, but she squeezed her wife’s hand tightly as they flew away from the Potomac River. She hoped that one day she’d believe that they were totally free.  
The rental car wound around the roads, going a speed that was probably needlessly fast considering the fact that Hannibal Lecter now, Alana hoped, was still on the other coast or perhaps even across the Atlantic (considering that he had Will for help). The Red Dragon would probably even kill again before Hannibal could get to him, but she couldn’t help but feel like at any moment she would turn around and see him following her like he did that night in his kitchen, knife in hand and bloodied shirt, or the wild eyes she’d seen when she cut the ropes on Hannibal’s restraints back at Muskrat Farm. She drove, and Margot rested her hand on Alana’s seat in a clear effort to comfort her. Hugo slept soundly in his car seat, and the sun was beginning to set on the beautiful warmth of the valley. Alana could laugh at the difference between winter in Baltimore and winter here. She hoped she’d never see snow again.  
When they’d arrived at the house, Margot carried Hugo inside and got his bed set up so he could sleep. Alana began the work of carrying their belongings into the house, and soon she had moved almost all of their wardrobes. Their furniture couldn’t be shipped from the Verger house for fear that someone could track the packages, but thankfully the safe house was decorated and ready to be lived in. Alana put her and Margot’s things in their shared bedroom, and took all of Hugo’s things into the smaller bedroom.  
When she pushed the door open she saw Margot sitting on their son’s bed, stroking his hair as he slept. Alana cleared her throat softly and Margot looked up, a few tears falling on her cheeks. Alana went to her wife and stroked her shoulders. They stood there in silence while they watched Hugo’s chest rise and fall. Alana was struck by a vivid memory of his birth, when Margot had held her hand during the labor and barely let Alana go in the days afterward.  
Finally they rose and went back into the hall to retrieve the last of their things. Margot carried several boxes of pantry items into the kitchen, and when Alana followed with more boxes she could see that Margot had pulled out a bottle of Cabernet from the Verger wine cellar. It was a vintage that Alana was sure they had had at their wedding, and Margot set it down before fetching two glasses.  
“Hope you don’t mind if we drink it warm,” came Margot’s voice from inside of the pantry.  
“It’s perfectly fine,” Alana replied as she dropped the boxes on the ground, and she moved into the kitchen to help with sorting.  
It took a few hours but finally they were settled in, and Margot popped the cork and poured them glasses. The two women collapsed on the couch, and Margot immediately curled her body into Alana’s as soon as they had removed their shoes. They both smelled like travel and could use a shower, but they contented themselves with drinking and holding each other.  
“This is a nice house,” Margot said after taking a few sips of her wine.  
“I bought it about six months after Hannibal was caught. Had it maintained specifically for us, just in case.”  
“You always seem to think of everything. It seems like the call came in and we left within the hour.”  
Alana put her hand in Margot’s hair. “If I was going to personally guard Hannibal Lecter and keep him from the rest of the world, I had to take some precautions. I’d die before I’d let anything happen to you or Hugo.”  
“Suddenly that possibility seemed sooner rather than later,” Margot replied, before looking down sheepishly. “You know how much of a ray of sunshine I can be. I’m not proud of being like that.”  
Alana dropped her head to press her lips to Margot’s forehead. “I love you regardless. I’m just glad you know what’s at stake. Hannibal and the Red Dragon are still roaming free as far as we know, and you know Will’s helping one of them.”  
“So you think Will’s still alive?”  
“With Hannibal, there’s no telling really, but I think they need each other too much.”  
Margot lifted her head and met her eyes with a quizzical look. “Didn’t Hannibal try and saw Will’s head open? Haven’t they tried to kill each other multiple times?”  
Alana laughed. “You do some crazy things when you’re in love and fighting to survive when you think it’s you against the world.”  
Margot chuckled too. “We never really got to thank Hannibal, he gave us our son.”  
“I’ll send him a card.”

* * *

 

Jack called her about two weeks after they’d arrived. They found Francis Dolarhyde practically slaughtered at a home on the coast of the Atlantic, blood and glass splatted both inside and outside the house. Hannibal and Will were nowhere to be found, and Bedelia Du Maurier couldn’t be reached. Yet the evidence suggested, as no cars were missing, that perhaps Will and Hannibal had gone over the cliff and plunged into the sea. When she’d gotten that news she’d hung up, found her wife and son in the living room and held them close. She couldn’t help but feel sorry, sorry that any of this happened and sorry that Hannibal had ever entered into their lives. She felt partially responsible for Will’s downfall, and she hoped that their stories ended with them sinking to the bottom. He told her once that he felt like he was fading, and the last few years had been proof of how far he really had faded.

Hugo grew to love Napa and their little house with the huge lawn and the warm, dry weather he had never experienced before in his young life. Margot and Alana chased him around the yard, and they got him a playmate from the shelter the next county over. Hugo bounded around the house with the dog, which he’d named Raisin, and did laps around the yard under his mothers’ watchful eyes. Margot, always drawn to nature, would take walks around the property in the early mornings, and she visited the local wineries often enough that soon the wine cellar in the basement was totally full. They’d invited the neighbors over after the first month of living there, and soon they entertained regularly. They introduced themselves as Alana and Margot Dreyfuss with their son Hugo, as they wouldn’t dare draw any unwanted attention or prying eyes who would hear the Verger name, or perhaps the Bloom name for anyone in clinical psychology circles, and investigate into their past.  
They had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and Hugo’s birthday was the most fun they'd ever had though it lacked the fanfare of his previous parties at the Verger estate. Alana started growing her own grapes and eventually spread out further into the garden, wearing her hair in loose ponytails and baggy clothes as she spent hours weeding and planting vegetables. Sometimes she could hardly recognize herself, as she was tanner and happier than she had ever been. She’d escaped the miasma of Baltimore, one that she hadn’t even realized had infected her. The nightmares still appeared, though not every night, and there would be mornings where she and Margot would drink coffee together in the darkness of the kitchen and just be together in the silence.

While they lay in bed asleep one night, Alana heard the snap of a lock turning at her back door. Her eyes flew open and she listened. She could hear movement around her door, and there was no sound from the alarm system. Someone had disabled it, and possibly cut the power.  
She touched her wife, and Margot’s eyes opened immediately. Alana put a finger to her lips and withdrew her gun from under her pillow. Margot’s eyes went wide, but she said nothing as she reached into her bedside table and retrieved her own pistol.  
Alana and Margot approached their bedroom door, and opened it just a crack. The intruders were being almost silent, and Alana could see Hannibal’s silhouetted by the moonlight spilling in from a window in her kitchen.  
In one quick movement, Alana opened her door, flicked on the hall light, and aimed her gun right at Hannibal’s back. Will faced her, and his eyes grew wide when he saw her in her pajamas, hair down and around her shoulders, with a gun aimed at the both of them.  
“Evening gentlemen,” she whispered, and Hannibal put his hands in the air slowly as he turned to look at her. Will did the same. Margot came out of the room behind Alana, her gun also trained on the men in her kitchen. She didn’t seem at all surprised to see Will and Hannibal standing in their kitchen, and she glanced briefly up to Alana in a silent question of what to do next. Should they die? she asked without words. Not yet.  
Alana approached the two men, her teeth gritted. “You two want to follow me into the living room so we can take care of the situation that we seem to have found ourselves in?”  
Hannibal smiled, the bastard, and nodded as he started to move down the hall. Alana kept her gun on him as he walked, and Margot tilted her head to direct Will to follow. He did as she asked and they all went into the living room. Hannibal and Will stood in the center of the room, and Alana and Margot moved to stand one beside one another.  
Alana had one gun pointed in the general direction of Hannibal’s torso, while Margot maintained her aim on Will’s head though Alana, and Hannibal and Will no doubt, could see that she was trembling.  
“Your son must be asleep, Alana, you wouldn’t want to wake him,” offered Hannibal, still keeping his arms raised.  
“The last thing you need to worry about is whether I care about waking up my son.” She said. He knew she could kill him, and she was counting on him believing that she would.  
“I made you a promise Alana. But it’s one I don’t intend to hold to. We just want to talk.”  
Will decided to speak up then, though he was saying it under his breath as if he was ashamed to say it. “Alana, do what he says.”  
She turned to Will, her voice a harsh whisper through her teeth. “And are you too far gone to realize what this is? It never occurred to you what kind of a life we built, how far we ran to get away from all of this, from you?”  
Will finally looked at her, and she could see the long, mottled flesh of his scarred face. She wondered who could have had done that, and wondering gave her a sick feeling of satisfaction. “Alana, can we just talk? Put the gun down.”  
Margot, bless her, moved her gun further toward Will Graham’s temple. “Pleasure seeing you again. Don’t tell my wife what to do.”  
Alana shook her head. “Much as I hate to admit it, if they wanted us dead we’d be dead by now. They want to speak? Fine. If anything should go awry, it’s five minutes from the nearest police station, who I’m sure would love to give Jack Crawford a call should they get wind of the fact that Hannibal Lecter and his accomplice paid us a visit.”  
Hannibal laughed. “I admire your preparations, Alana. I would expect nothing less from you. I recall the thoroughness you employed during my time under your care.”  
“Attention to detail keeps me alive, Dr. Lecter. Won’t you sit down?”  
Keeping the guns aimed at Will and Hannibal, Margot and Alana watched as the two sank down on their loveseat, arms still raised in surrender. Alana moved the gun up from Hannibal’s torso to his neck, keeping all of her limbs well away from Hannibal’s toothy grin, the widest smile she’d ever remember seeing from him.  
“Margot, will you get these gentlemen some brandy? And Will, please keep your hands up while my wife gets the drinks.”  
She almost caught Will smiling as he stared straight ahead, and she wished that she could get to the phone. Margot had lowered the gun but kept it in her hand as she fetched the brandy, her hair loose around her shoulders and her eyes wide with alertness. She poured the brandy neat into crystal glasses, and she picked up the two glasses with her three fingers and handed them to each man. Alana nodded that they could finally lower their arms. Hannibal took the glass from her, sniffed it, and drank a small sip. “Lovely,” he remarked in compliment to Alana’s taste. Will took a longer sip, and Alana hoped that meant he was a least a little nervous. Margot reaimed her gun once her hands were free, and Alana moved back to a chair across from the loveseat.  
Once Alana was seated Margot backed up as well, sitting on a wooden stool in the kitchen island.  
Alana lowered her gun, picking up her glass of wine still resting on the end table. She did not put down the gun. “Now, since we’re all comfortable, I guess you start talking, Hannibal.”  
“Thank you Alana, I remember your professional curiosity. I’m sure you want to know how we found you.”  
Margot piped up from the kitchen. “I would love to know also how you rationalize that dropping in on us late at night without at least a phone call ahead is not incredibly rude.”  
“I’ve always admired your humor, Margot. Tell me, are you still as weird as you claimed to be the first time you sought my help?”  
“I’ve gotten weirder,” she replied, sipping from her own glass.  
“That’s good to hear.”  
Will had since been quiet, sipping his brandy. Alana could see so much of Hannibal in him now: the way he carried himself, the small movements of his face, the way he kept his body close to Hannibal for fear that they would be separated.  
She leaned forward. “Will, how long have you been in love with him? Does that make it easier, hurting people?”  
She was trying to rile him up, dare him to try anything, or even give her a sign that he was here not of his own choice. She got no such sign. He leaned forward, mirroring her position with his glass. “I took Hannibal with me over the cliff, and we survived. Everything else that’s followed has been that action’s natural result. Does having your wife make it easier to know that I took your place, and Dr. Du Maurier’s place?”  
“I’m glad someone found something to do with him, he needed someone to settle him down. And how does Hannibal feel about you supposedly taking my place?”  
Hannibal spoke up again. “You were wonderful, Alana, I assure you. I fear your job would have been in jeopardy once Ms. Prunell found out you were sharing your bed with the Chesapeake Ripper.”  
“Well, I’m glad we’re getting the chance to rehash all of our shared history. It seems that we’ve all swapped partners with one another.”  
Hannibal chuckled. “And the blots of Nature’s hand/shall not in their issue stand.”  
“Wouldn’t have pegged you for a fan of the comedies, Dr. Lecter,” said Margot.  
“Laughter is a powerful tool, it upends and it forces those with power to relinquish it for at least a moment. I’ve organized my life in ways that bring me plenty of joy. I already said I was delighted to see you both.”  
Will drained his glass. “We killed the Dragon, and lived in various places until we decided we fancied visiting you at the Verger Estate. Did not take long to figure out that you’d gone to the other coast."  
"We both admire your commitment to staying hidden.”  
Alana drained her glass as well, swallowed and cleared her throat. “You cased out the house, once you found out we were in Napa. Probably saw us passing in our car, or out at the market with our son, or visiting a vineyard. Figured we’d have security, waited until we were most vulnerable. All to just talk, of course.”  
“You know if we’d contacted you earlier you and your family would’ve run to Antarctica by now,” offered Will.  
“And you’d be right.”  
Suddenly Hugo’s door swung open, and out bounded Raisin from where he’d been sleeping next to Hugo. Whimpering could be heard from inside the bedroom, and Margot jumped up to comfort Hugo while Raisin tried to jump into Will’s lap. Will lit up, combing his fingers through Raisin’s coat and looked at the tag on his collar. Hannibal looked uncomfortable but he also looked pleased to see Will smiling so wide.  
“Clearly Raisin can recognize a friend to animals. He’s not a particularly good guard dog, as you can plainly see. ”  
Hugo’s whimpering went on for a little while longer while Margot comforted him, Hannibal and Will still resting on the couch with their brandy glasses. For a moment Alana had a vision of Hannibal whipping the glass at her head, her body crumpling on the floor and her wife running in to grab her gun. Will would tackle her to the ground, and Hannibal would take the gun and pistol-whip her if not shooting her directly. When they’d come to, hours later-  
Alana trained her gun back on the two men on the loveseat, placing her wine glass back on the side table. “So have you decided whether you want to kill us or not? Being kept in suspense about this is a thrill, but I’d like the suspense to end right about now.”  
Hannibal put his glass on the edge of the couch, balancing it carefully as he leaned back into his seat. He swung his hand so that it rested along Will’s shoulder. Power move, Alana thought. “Dr. Bloom, dearest Alana, Will thinks we should spare you and your family. I would argue that what you’ve done to us is too egregious to ignore and let lie.”  
“Will, may I add, betrayed you, and you turned yourself in. You’ve forgiven Will, and Margot and Hugo have done nothing wrong. I’ve shown my gratitude for how you helped Margot and I, and in return we helped you leave Muskrat Farm.”  
He smiled. “You certainly had a funny way of conveying your gratitude.”  
“I did it to keep my people at the hospital alive and still have you stay in relative comfort. If you’d be left to rot in the basement cells of the BSHCI under Chilton, I’m sure people would have died, even more than did when you were with me.”  
“And for those small comforts I am grateful.”  
“Then let us live. No phone calls, we’ll only upgrade our security and claim that it’s a preventive measure. We stay away from Baltimore, and Quantico, and Jack Crawford if he still has a career there after all that’s happened.”  
“It sounds like you’re begging Alana. No fun, is it?” Will piped up again.  
“I’ll get on my knees if you unsure of whether I’m begging or not. I built a life, one that I want to separate from the one I had with both of you. That fall changed more than just the alignment of my pelvis.”  
“And yet you call it a fall?” Hannibal quipped.  
“Abigail Hobbes, the one I knew, was dead. That hasn’t changed.”  
Margot reentered the room, sat back on the stool and picked up her gun. “Hugo’s fallen back asleep,” she whispered as she retook her seat. “Raisin’s going to stay out here with us, I guess.”  
The dog in question lay asleep on the floor, right in the no man’s land between the couch and Alana’s recliner. Alana would’ve laughed if she wasn’t so concerned with keeping the tension at bay and avoiding letting Will and Hannibal know just how scared she was.  
“Well gentlemen, thank you for stopping by. Margot and I won’t look for you, or talk to the FBI. You both died that night on the ocean. And now our paths will part forever.”  
Will's face softened. “I remember that you told me once, Alana, that you were leaving me to my ghosts whenever you visited me during your recovery. We did die that night, and yet you sound like you want to walk among ghosts too.”  
Margot hopped off of the bar stool and perched on the edge of the chair, taking her wife’s hand. “We’re dead to you, and once you leave you’ve died to us. If the FBI or police come by we’ll direct them the other way.”  
Hannibal nodded. “And in return, should anyone become inclined to threaten the lovely people of Napa Valley, perhaps we’ll see you again in the future.”  
“Be careful, Dr. Lecter. Will seems to be offering protection to us on your behalf. Are you sure that’s something you want to agree to?”  
Hannibal paused, and then he stood up. Raisin jumped up, and Alana did too as Margot slipped off the side of the chair. Alana raised the gun, but Hannibal just extended his hand.  
“Alana, Margot, give your son our love. And we’ll be going. Thank you for the brandy, and for your hospitality.”  
Will waited for Alana to glance over to him before he stood up, a small sign of deference to her in her own home. Hannibal still stood with his hand outstretched.  
Alana walked over, slowly but with purpose, and she lowered the gun and extended her own right hand. She and Hannibal clasped hands, a breathless moment where Alana envisioned him yanking her to the ground. His strong hands, callused and firm, enclosed her hand for a quick handshake. As she removed her hand his fingers grazed her wrist, and she felt a shudder run through her body. She thought she might be sick.  
“Until we all meet again,” he told her as she stepped away. “Take care of Margot, Alana, and hopefully she will take care of you.”  
“Believe me I will, Dr. Lecter,” came Margot’s answer.  
When the two men had gone, dawn was just beginning to break as light crept in from the east and turned the whole sky a muted gray color. It might rain today, heaven knows they desperately needed the rain. Alana and Margot made their way onto their patio while the coffee brewed. Neither of them said very much, and when Alana took Margot’s hand she realized both of them were clammy and still shaking.  
Birds chirped and flew high over their heads, the world waking up. “I’ll call the security company again today, get the locks changed and another alarm installed in addition to the cameras,” Margot said softly as she grabbed each of them a mug.  
“Maybe we should wait a few days, then we won’t look so shaken up that they get suspicious.”  
Margot chuckled as she poured their coffee. “I don't know about you but I won't feel secure until we go and get the locks changed, at least.”  
“You aren’t alone in that.”  
“Sometimes I feel alone, even when I’m not. Especially when everything seems so dark. ”  
Alana took her hand as Margot handed her the coffee. “You are not alone, Margot. I’m standing there in that darkness right beside you. And we have our son there too.”  
“I thought that we came here in order to escape all of the darkness.”  
“We did, but I’ve made peace with the fact that it may never really go away.”  
Margot leaned down and placed her lips on the top of Alana’s head. “I heard what you said about us being dead to them. I feel like who I was before we met is dead, but I’m not mourning her passing.”  
“Hannibal taught me a few things about philosophy during my time with him, both before and after he went to prison. Will said that he spotted him in the cathedral in Palermo before he met him in Florence. He thought that had a ‘disgusting poeticism’, those were his words.”  
“Didn’t he find a body there? Would explain the disgust a little more.”  
“A man’s body, decapitated and bloody, contorted into the shape of a human heart.”  
“So they deserve each other then, do you think?”  
“If you’d asked me that a few years ago I would have laughed you out of the room. Now I kind of want to cry.”  
The sun broke through the morning clouds and fog, weak and pale but still filling the sky with light. Hugo would probably start to wake up soon, Alana thought, and she finished her cup of coffee in a few long sips.  
She turned her head back up to look at Margot. “But if you had asked me at that same time if you and I would end up together I’d have had the same reaction.”  
“Why, am I making you that miserable?” Margot asked, her face breaking into a smile as she reached her hand down and tickled Alana underneath her arm. Alana laughed out of shock as she jumped, and Margot laughed along with her. “I love you, Margot Verger-Bloom.”  
“I love you, Alana Bloom-Verger. Have we decided on an order for Hugo’s last name? It’ll get confusing once he starts school.”  
“Well he is the Verger heir,” Alana replied as she kissed Margot’s hand as she stood up to go wake their son.  
“But he seems more like a Bloom to me? Hugo Bloom?”  
“Sounds like a forgotten Joyce character.”  
“Fine, Hugo Verger-Bloom.”  
“When he gets old enough he can pick which one of us he loves more by choosing his own last name.”  
Both of them laughed as Margot went inside. The rain showers promised by the clouds were a long way off. The sun still shone, and the Verger-Blooms began to start another day of keeping the darkness as far away as they could. They were running, but for today they could be still.


End file.
